Electronics Alive V: Animation Screening

So I had the chance during my digital art class one evening to go see the animations being shown in the Reeves Theater (why I love Megan Voeller, she’s really great, and Santi was there so yays) I tried to write all the animations down, one again my stupid self can’t read my own handwriting (to my father it’s still a clear-cut sign I should be a doctor or lawyer, look I love John Grisham Novels ‘n all, but no ain’t gonna happen, sorry pops). The animations we’re so amazing! I loved all but I think… 2? I can’t remember, but I remember Yankee Girl, it was so powerful in the pilots last few minutes, the music relived WWII, all of it was FANTASTIC! Even the first animation with two elderly folks in the wheel chair, that was really amazing and so funny. You felt like you were part of the moment, you felt every single bump in their imaginations, you could feel the air, and taste everything… to me animation has really reached a peak when you can feel those things in something that is not ‘real-time’. Machu-Pichu post was really good too; I loved how innocent a lot of these films were (a lot of puppets, the Marie Antoinette one was hilarious, I couldn’t help but giggle).

That French School Supinfocom, is really kicking some serious a-- in animation. I mean even the one about the giant tar-like monster I forgot that title too, but that one reminded me so much of Sphere, which is a book by Michael Crichton, but also a film that had, Samuel L. Jackson, Dustin Hoffman, and Sharon Stone. I loved that movie so much, I found a lot of animations to have a theme similar to things I had loved, it was great to see so many 3D-animation films that were intriguing for everyone.

Click Here to watch Yankee Girl

Click Here to watch Machu-Pichu Post

S.T.E.L.A.R.C

I finally got a chance to explore Stelarc's site, his work is really interesting and beyond amazing. Next to Bob Violla, I found another contemporary artist I really enjoy. The idea of making the human body a canvas is always interesting to me. I mean while the whole class was squirming over people being cut open, I find it beautiful. Truly sublime, death can be transpired into a beautiful object of beauty. Like a butterfly, I mean only 3 or so days to live, yet when they’re on the side of the road as a whole or crushed, there is this unique beauty about them that is amazing… I saw this one piece he had done called “blender”, that is incredibly similar to Orlan’s procedures, he along with Nina Sellers had a liposuction procedure and placed in this strange looking sculpture. I can figure why people do get so grossed out, I mean yes I do get easily sick, but when you pull yourself out of the materialistic senses you see this ideal in a different way. No one talks about the physical torture one must go through in order to achieve; I guess that is why to me a lot of people get sick. It’s hard to pull one’s self out of what is natural, when reality is this is what happens. His work is amazing, even the stuff about the exoskeleton… it’s, to me it’s something I expect to come a phenomenon that will be permanent in our society years from now (This is coming fro ma girl who grew up watching sci-fi movies, yes I love everything big Michael Crichton fan). His suspensions were soooo amazing. To me that was his best work, his newer stuff is more shock factor and just as amazing how he utilizes technology, to me though the piece in which he suspended himself using Rocks in Japan was really beautiful and serene. You couldn’t help but admire his physical posture and the whole imagery. To take images of him must have been really amazing, it’s just… breathtaking. I really enjoyed going through his works, and seeing some of the more shock-factor imagery, they were really great. The body transcends from this physical being to nothing more than a body base, or a manikin in which other forms attach its’ self to create a work of art. Personally, all this stuff he has done along with Orlan, I couldn’t… still it brings you to a point of amazement of how performance artists transcend the more traditional forms and surpass art and how important it was to contemporary art now. I can’t tell you how seeing all these performance artists has really influenced me as an artist and a lover of art.

Electronics Alive V: Artists Reception

I really meant to blog about the artists reception, but again my lazy self didn’t so I’m trying to catch up but I'm getting there! I’m so gonna award myself with a cookie! Just because I’m just that damn great yes?

Anyhow, I really enjoyed going to the reception there was so many great digital art pieces, Bruce Wand’s image was great…. I mean yes being exposed to it previously with the Buddha light painting was great and all that jazz, but still... seeing it in person, even as a print was just… really amazing. I brought my mother and brother to the reception and she really liked it… I liked almost all of the pieces, I think there was one that I didn’t understand very well, but that’s me sometimes I'm clueless on a lot of things, but there was a few I can’t remember well, my handwriting sucks, even though I wrote the titles, but I have the brochure still so I’m trying to recall the ones I can.

I enjoyed “crow” a lot, that was so beautifully done you could feel the texture of the bird as it morphed it was amazing. I love imagery that forms into other substances… its really amazing. “The plush life”, “the salmon dance”, “oktapodi” and “blind spot” I mean I saw those three everyday for two months, but I loved them and it’s now stuck in my head. “Witness” was really intriguing, I remember one titled “oasis” that was really neat the way the artists integrated interaction, it was so cute (yes I'm using cute), it was really spiffy and also the piece titled "Thread and Carbon, Oil and Steel" by Sally Grizzell Larson, was WOW.. a really powerful image. As a whole, the whole reception was great, there was so many morphing, interesting pieces… all of them were really great and fun. It was a great experience.

Plus the performance piece was great.. SANTI!!! ignore me I was all giggles when seeing our proff's face and Kendra's.. why not it was cool, and it was a really great piece...

Electronics Alive V: Christina Hung

Christina Hung was really fun to listen to. As an art major, hearing printmaking terms was like “I totally get that”, and it was great for her to associate the arts with biological study. Especially when she said if you contaminate the subject, it’s like in printmaking with lithography (which I have finally done in printmaking and it’s/… as task, but the results come out really lovely! I need to finish my plate and start on my big one for printmaking, which I’m soo glad I can do bigger scale work… it’s still a big scar monster, but I’m getting better with it and it’s a good feeling!). I felt that was the best thing how she integrated the uses of two mediums to create a work of art. Since most of the time, science is mostly associated with the arts in the case of photography (from what I know), s to see a woman mind you incorporate science and art, is really great. Her and Cynthia Lawson, both are just really amazing. I loved Christina Hung’s idea of making the vector maps with the germs, it was. Very ironic in a lot of ways, and using a voice with her work. The American vectors were so clean, but showed a good point about the war, no matter how clean or concise, its a dieasease, a germ, an infestant that continues to grow and contaminate. Even the aftermath of how the germs contaminate the whole dish. This is how war works, and it sure as hell ain't anything you want to be near... especially in the aftermath no matter what happens.

Even more so I enjoyed the hearing about her “flaws” and mess-ups, there’s this human ideal to when artists make mistakes. The masters you can’t help but be in awe and feel no piece has a problem, but like Chris Valle says, all pieces have a flaw and live I’ve always done with the masters I find them and still appreciate it. Her story about how the piece was infected because of the brick, and I thought it was hilarious and such a normal mistake we all make. I love hearing from intelligent women who are into the arts, I mean so far a lot of women minus a few and Cynthia I know are just so… stupid? And “omg I can paint” egh… I like a fun girl, but no… so to me again it was great seeing women who have a mind, a concept, and a like/love for what they do… If I didn’t get back into the arts I was planning on being a marine biologist I have a love for science as well… even the idea of mixing chemicals, I would love to do that. So maybe in the future I’ll explore that more in graduate school, or even here in Tampa, who knows.

Electronics Alive V: Bruce Wands/MTV3

Bruce Wands was really nifty. Although to most of my classmates it was one of those ‘boring’ lectures about digital arts, (and I must admit it was too much for me in the morning, I started yawning out of being tired, not boredom so mucho sorry to Bruce!), but I really was interested in what I learned, I’m seriously considering getting that book he had written. It looked like it was filled with all sorts of information about artists that would in the end be very beneficial for me.

His Buddha light paintings were nothing but divine, and his lecture on electronic music, wowzers. I was never a big fan of digital art, growing up in kw there is very limited or none, so I was traditionalist in the sense, but when I got into college, I grew out of that and stopped being an immature brat about art and started to be open to lots of things. He gave a lot of great info and help for those of us that want to pursue art, digital or traditional… it was really nice to have a lecture like that.

Later in the day I got to see the lecture about MTV3, honestly I had seen advertisements, but I had never watched it. After hearing the lecture and how they go through their development plans, it was rally spiffy and neat. Whenever I have nothing to watch I do I go to MTV3. It’s so much better than regular MTV, the music is great and their infomercials are just, not right but incredibly hilarious. It’s more fun than versus other channels (even though yes I do watch vh1 a lot, still). It was really good to have those two lectures on that day; It was both educational and inspirational? (god that sound kitschy), but it was information I could always keep with me, and have a better understanding of.

Electronics Alive V: Cynthia Lawson

So I finally got off my but to do a blog about Electronics alive (the next several will be, so that way I’ve caught up to making the blogs I’ve needed to A.S.A.P but I’m almost caught up thankfully… I think I’m almost back to pretty good par so... yays for me!).

So Cynthia Lawson… as a woman I was really excited, for the first time (with a huge exception to my mother), I found a woman artist I can relate to (this whole semester it’s been easy to relate to other women considering I don’t. It’s not that I’m alien, but not. Like a lot of the women my age or in general who are into prim and proper fashionistas, hell I watch project runway, heavily into bob Mackie (who is divine by the way) know labels, designers, but it’s not my life… even women artists before me, photographers, painters, even Berthe Morisot, I just... I couldn’t connect wit her, even through the intimacy of her imagery… it was hard. So Cynthia really helped me feel connected for the first time to other women who are not related. Especially how she implemented photography (she sooo got bonus points for that, like how Christina Hung for hers too.. yes I'm just that nice). But, to me seeing her work was a modernized version of the old technology of a black and white camera, her imagery of these places where people gather, formed into ‘blurs’ like as in how motion blurs work with documenting movement and time. Her images, compositionally were outstanding, I loved them. I would see her shows, and she made me want to work on my motion blur (which I suck at) still, I was heavily inspired after that speech.

Seeing her videos of her do the one thing a day, helped me do my performance art. I was never a person who was comfortable with my body, so seeing another woman just do her art, no matter how ‘unkempt’ she looked, she went and exposed herself to the outside world suing technology and measuring the moments in time… as a woman and an artist, I really grew from seeing her…

Andy Warhol; The Self Promotional Tool

ANDY FREAKIN WARHOL, HOLSY SHI- im so doing the rock signs as I am typing this (hypothetically, just go along like you have an idea what I’m talking about), but this class was the best. Seeing the intro where the artists did the silk screening, which I would love to learn how to do just gave total essence to the entire documentary. The whole thing, gave me so much better insight on Warhol in general… he is truly talented in what he had done. From everything from the shoe drawings to the iconic imagery of Marilyn… he has this classic ideology of commercialism becomes the theatro mundi, how can you not enjoy his work? I had to do a research paper for Chris Valle’s class, and I picked Takashi Murakamai as Japan’s version of Andy Warhol… uhm no. I’m sorry whether or not he was American; Warhol’s aesthetic became so iconic because it was all that icons. Marilyn, the Campbell soup cans, Jackie Kennedy, the shoes, he commercialized himself to where everything was not free… Murakami has some interesting pieces. His large-scale murals are really neat and fit into the idea of iconic culture, but I just… I got lost in his work and as a lover of Asian influences, it was too much commercialism The images all become one image, not like the cans when you can distinguish from Monroe, or to his silk screens, so I got somewhat offended people complimented him for that when reality is, he may have done similar things, but ethnicity did not make Warhol who he was. It was this personality he formed… Plus he was a product to be sold, and his name is a product, trademark, etc. You can’t have someone else brand him when he clearly belongs to himself… if that makes any sense?

Lately I’ve seen everyone running around with Andy Warhol bags (now? They’ve been out since fall, and suddenly ‘omg look at what I found at ross their new!!!!” uhm.. no.. their…not I hate to break their bubbles) I don’t have any, and I saw the bags they were selling. I’m into odd things. I know I know it goes against the commercial ideal of it being Warhol selling ‘himself’ for profit, I mean it’s cool they brought it back, but I’m not a person who will spend 30 bucks on a purse… it sounds mean, but it’s the truth. Plus I like having things people don’t want or have, I’m sure not too long down the road I’ll find the perfect Andy Warhol purse, hell I found a nifty Monet bag and I love that bag! So I’m not too keen on the new bag, they’re everywhere, and again even though it’s against the idea of commercialism, still I’d like something…different y’know?

Otherwise, I really enjoyed seeing Warhol’s work, and of course BLONDIE’S RAPTURE VIDEO WHOO! I’m a huge 80’s freak, Blonde, Pat Benatar, Wham!, Dead or Alive, Jan Hammer, Art of Noise, Berlin, Tears for Fears, I can go on forever so to me that was so much uber comfort zone, I had no idea she knew Warhol; I mean duh it makes sense now, her in the heart of glass video looking similar to Marilyn with the hair and physical look… Now I feel stupid. Still, I enjoyed this class so much.


At the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts they will be having an incoming exhibition of Warhol's work, which i'm so going to check out this summer....


Oh one last thing.... CHECK THIS OUT!!!!!! [click here] just don't ask, I made my friend the most happiest asian in the world by showing him something so cool their exhibiting in the Warhol Museum. I WANT IT!

Everything From Pollack to 'The Naked Lunch'; all filed under RADICAL...

This will be the most random comment I have ever made in my life:

OMG JACKSON POLLACK! I know that’s random, but I loooooove him! I would kill to see a show of his (among degas, Jackson Pollack was my favorite modern artist I would love to see his works in person). I bought the movie ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ just to see the part where Julia Roberts character has the whole class go see a painting of Pollack’s, even though it was a reproduction, still can you imagine a moment of seeing one of them up-close I love that movie anyhow because of all the art, but still…. The browns, white, intensity of those colors, doesn’t remind me of fall, but the alcoholism that plagued him and his relationship to his wife (which if you’ve seen the film and know his life)…its full of rage, anger, precision all balled into one canvas Although to a lot of people his work is “omg its splatter paintings”, there full of emotion, complex human emotion like in Francis Bacon’s imagery. The sensation of all the horrors, and beauties of life are placed into it. You’re bombarded with this image and become entranced, and forget the ‘false’ images of beautiful women and stereotypes of art, that although we loved, this radical image makes you forget…

Everything from the Bauhaus, and the chairs… it’s this never-ending ideal of icons that plague architecture, and ‘art that is useable’ in the real world. I mean to me I’ve always liked looking through décor and furniture magazines to see the styles of furniture, even watching that ‘top design show’, the furniture, it’s this whole collision of things that make you see the whole world as an art piece, the theatro mundi. I would love to own a place that has that feel, not a place that’s awhile, but a living art space that everyday another performance art has occurred, whether or not its sleeping, eating, drinking, whatever it may be.


Richard Hamilton and pop art, that collage always makes giggle when you think about the places he got those images of the lollipop, the erotic image of the woman, commercialism is obviously key is these beginnings of art. Which of course lead into Andy Warhol Mannnn…then of course the part about Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, DAMN talk about wowzers…

I want to get the open road, and the naked lunch. Their is this impending horror that came from these images they both created sound distorted in a way that is unorthodox and because it is, it creates these distorted visions of reality that not even sci-fi writers cold come up with… especially the pieces of the movie we watched Wooow… I’m so gonna find that movie and watch it! It looks so disturbing, and even though yes it gave me a nightmare, still…. There is this sense of seeing into his mind, no matter how messed up he was, its this undeniable truth to it which I find really amazing.

Howl, I already made a comment about that and how stupid people we’re to censor it, so that’s my piece and I'm sticking to it.

DADISM, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray

I promised I’d catch up with posts about each class and the classmate comments, except I don’t have the picys yet so I’ll get on that as soon as I get them.

Anyhow, I guess I need to get back to the surrealists, Dada, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp (who by the way is a f-ing genius, I’m sorry L.H.O.O.Q still makes me giggle, god that man is loony-bird x 10000 but I adore him so much for that. That iconic mustache has gone so far, it’s amazing. Especially this image I found of him playing chess on wiki):


Something about it is very earthlike, for such un-human artists they bring this earthly idea, which I’ll get into here a few seconds.

I’m sorry, this was a marking of the best part of the class. This second half had gotten better and better. If I was true to keeping up with the blogs, every other blog would have been “best class ever!” or something lame like that. I love surrealism, I grew up looking at Salvador Dali and falling in love with the persistence of Memory, Duchamp’s fountain and nude descending the stairs (which I can’t help but crack a giggle when I see that image of the fountain by Alfred Stieglitz). The Dadaists I couldn’t help but crack at the images running through the documentary of them in suits, having a good time. The idea of anti-artists still to this day fascinates me… The black and white images, the urinal used as a fountain, all of it has this deeper context that you can’t put on traditional art, as beautiful and fantastic as it is, its more down to earth and helps us all find a way to relate to the art world.

Man Ray, as a photographer I knew only so much about It’s sad on my part because I have a bad problem, I know pieces visually, not titles. I’m horrible with titles, but still, I knew his name not his body of work very well. But still the ray-o-graphs… I love doing those in the photo studio, the idea of creating someone out of something else is something we all artists want t do… the DADA artists helped me pass that this year. Especially the collage, I loved doing that. It was challenging, but it’s a piece I will always have an adoration for, even if years down the road I’ll be like “THAT F—SUCKED WHY DID I LIKE THAT?!” it came from a place where I never knew existed. So this class helped me push myself, and made me miss smelling the acids and chemicals in the photo room… I haven’t taken a photo class in so long, worked on black and white photos, seeing Duchamp’s work made me miss that. I am a majoring in photo so of course “omg photographer” but its like with the other mediums, its this attachment where if your gone you miss it like your lover you need it to live and breathe, and I guess I’ve realized I’ve become more rounded I like everything so since I'm in the studio constantly with painting and printmaking I feel ok and its it’s a great feeling that unless you do art can truly say, I mean if its your passion you can agree it's a similar sensation. I just mean, unless you do it, there is something unique about hands-on art forms that always makes me feel at home, and safe and secure. Like a security blanket, no matte if there is a tear in the cover, I feel protected. The artists in this time period, no matter how complex and unsafe it was, and avant garde, it still is like a safety blanket for me, I feel safe in this place. I place I consider home.

HOLY SHI-!!!!!! MOTHER OF GOD SHE'S BACK!

I know I haven’t bloged in ages, too much going on lately, but I promise I’ll catch up! It’s been a very challenging few weeks, but I’m so catching up on blogs this weekend.

So I finally caught up with watching Ru Paul’s Drag race, which wooow, uber fabulous ending. I’m so happy to know it was Bebe who had won. I love Nina flowers, I mean I watched the reunion show and I couldn’t help but laugh when he said “pete burns was one of her influences” HA! To me that’s this huge inside joke because I love Dead or alive, and even though all the sex changes… uhm.. yeah. But I still like him for who he is a as an artist y’know. I mean you spin me round and brand new lover, c’mon how can you not love those songs? God, now I want to play that song since it’s permanently in my ipod. But the finale, those two totally rocked it. I love Nina’s outfits and her transformation. As a woman of ethnicity (yes I am, I'm 1/16 Cherokee, 50% Irish and a whole bunch of other European blood I lost track after soo many wow) I think its empowering seeing Latin and African-American ethnicities in the mix of drag queens. Even though there was cattiness and all that drama (which is more exciting on here, than on top model, honestly that’s gotten old now. I stopped watching the seasons a long time ago), there's this sense of even no matter what they want each other to succeed deep down inside because of discrimination. It’s admirable, especially to see such a mix of different individuals. It was good for Ru Paul to do something like that. Truly. Ongina, Nina Flowers, Bebe, I mean those three really made an impact on me personally. Not just personalities and the tragedies that empowered them to keep going, but their fashion sense and everything. It makes me sad about what has been going on school with our professor. I mean, how can you really honestly have a problem with anyone whose gay? I have a lot of good friends that are bisexual (I don’t have any straight friends, no I'm not kidding, I used to but they were annoyed I got along with bisexual friends and liked them...well I do have one but he’s more of an acquaintance, but is that a good thing?). Hell, I like my bisexual friends; they’re more real and open to a lot more things. They’ve been through a lot in their lives to know their way. I respect them so much. So I thought that kind of attack was somewhat personal to me too because whether or not you agree with their lifestyles, their people too. That sounds uber cliché, but its true. I may be straight, but for a lot of homosexual, bisexual, whatever it may be, their lives are always going to paved with difficult road, same with minorities, certain ethnic groups, women, etc. …Having good friends suffer because of such stupid things, like class, lifestyle, religion… you can’t help but feel obligated to stand up and say something. Even if it’s a small blog ranting about the problems of people being pushed under he ground of because of someone having a problem with nudity and homosexuality in public view.

Anyhow, other than my rant that whoever that person who made that comment was a complete dumba--, it’s been a challenging few weeks for me personally. Trying to take care of myself, problems, and family stuff, y’know basic everyday drama. Still, I’m trying my hardest to keep up with my artwork and work on at home projects, even though that’s almost impossible because now my artwork is literally thrown into schoolwork. It’s still weird for me. Why? Well when I was in Key West, although I like the fact I grew up on an island, because I wasn’t a true traditionalist and stuck in this box they have back home, I had to force myself to confine all the elements that made how I am (even though I don’t have a particular style, I do have things I love to do, I love to incorporate patterns in my work, that has always been something that is dear to me. I love checkered patterns, tiles on walls, wallpapers, anything that has a geometric pattern or not. Probably why I’m a huge fan of Japanese Woodblock prints since they have so many in the details of the kimonos.) So the work I did at home versus the work I did for school was literally two identities. Not in a good way, since I have three that come out when I do writing, drawing, or painting. I never use the same colors, same intensities in the work, subject matter… I cant there’s something blocking that? But I would like to be better at what I do. Since I went to the junior review, I’ve been trying hard to push my artwork a lot further, and work on big scales (tg for Chris Valle, I have not worked in big mediums ever, since a lot of my other classes its general letter size or smaller and our proff forcing us to use a big poster board, it made me want to go really big, even though I wanted to do a huge cube anyhow), however, that’s not the only reason. Big canvases scare me in a lot of ways. I’m so used to assuming when I go a big canvas it has to be a collage or something of a sort since I feel. However, with the passing of the DADA collage, that was a big medium for me, and I’m proud I did work I’m proud of. When I was in key west my work was mediocre, only a few things I liked the professor respected, so I’m glad to be around professors who are willing to help you if you need it and not shun you away because your tired at staring at a really fat female nude (yeah a big thing back home is a nude of a very… ‘Voluptuous woman I don’t have a problem with it, but when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all). So I’ve been going as big as I can, work as far as I can and push as much as I can. I would really like to be able to do my work and me comfortable with them. So with that, projects, assignments whoo… tg summers around the corner. But really though, I’m glad, as strenuous as it is I can push my real serious work into my work at school, and at least be a bit appreciated for it. It’s a wonderful feeling, although it comes with a lot of animosity from several people, still… in the end it’s worth it because as n artist I can feel everything growing. Whether or not were watching films on drag queens, or even when I'm listening to how to work imovie. I feel like I have a lot broader horizon to explore, and I’m really thankful for the opportunity to get better at what makes me happiest the most.